Electrical inductor design generally involves selecting a desired inductance (L) and a desired saturation current (Isat), i.e., the current at which the inductor ceases to operate as an effective inductor. Often there is a tradeoff between achieving a high inductance and achieving a high saturation current. An inductor having both a high inductance and a high saturation current is often expensive and/or physically large and bulky. It would be desirable to have a circuit operable to function similarly to an inductor having a high inductance and high saturation current at a fraction of the cost and bulk of a passive inductor having the same properties.
Power-line communication (PLC) is a communication method that uses electrical wiring to simultaneously carry both data and electric power. It may also be known as power-line carrier, power-line digital subscriber line (PDSL), mains communication, power-line telecommunications, or power-line networking (PLN). Therefore, the electrical conductors of the electrical wiring may be used as a data line via the superposition of an information signal to the electrical power present on the electrical conductors. When designing circuits for effective PLC, it may be necessary to design for operation at a wide range of frequencies, to allow for frequency selection according to characteristics and parameters of the system incorporating PLC (e.g., the size of the system, noise sources, etc.), according to different modes of operation and according to the modulation scheme. PLC circuits effective across frequency ranges (e.g., tens of kilohertz) may be expensive and/or bulky. It would be desirable to have a PLC circuit that can be adapted for operation at various frequencies at a low cost.